Konichiwa reader-san~~ I am back with a legendary trio:
MFBTY. This goes out specially to RIN who had requested a review on it & no
doubt am I happy to review this fast-paced yet dramatic art piece. Before I
begin, let me introduce the members of this trio: JK Tiger, Yoon Mi Rae and
Bizzy. To those who are not familiar with these names, they are the top names
mentioned in the K-hiphop scene with JK Tiger being the ‘king’ of hiphop. Yoon
Mi Rae is in fact married to JK Tiger. I’ll post a link to profiles of each
member if you’re interested in knowing further about them.
JK Tiger: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiger_JK
Yoon Mi Rae: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoon_Mi-rae
Ok, first off, some of you may feel puzzled at the name of
this trio. The actual full name is “My Fan’s Better Than Yours”. Why this
name?? JK mentioned in an interview that this single is an attempt towards the
fan-war-driven world of Idols where it’s the fans that create this “I’m better
than You” tension we seen often lately, be it online or in real life. In short,
they’re just having fun at this whole ridiculous wars “fans” create.
Onto the music. I’ll talk about the melody first. I myself
admit I do not listen to any of the members’ songs and “Sweet Dream” is my
first so I can’t say much to compare with their previous works BUT I can say
that it does have a modern feel of the inter-changing beats/rhythm which is
starting to be a trend in the K-Pop industry recently. For example, SNSD’s “I
Got A Boy” and Super Junior M’s “Breakdown”. This inter-changing style is not a
favourite of mine as I like my music to have a smooth flow rather than choppy
bits. I especially don’t favour techno/dubstep sounds as they do not have mercy
to my ears (my likes are played on a daily basis on the earphones). Based on comments
in Youtube, a majority favour MFBTY’s approach to interchanging beats & I
agree with them very much on this. Having all the verses rapped and chorus sung
by Mi Rae with a soul feel, the flow of change is essential in bringing all the
parts together.
The song begins with Mi Rae’s soulful vocals slowly coming
in which then builds up with “I wanna go go where you are” and – with a pause –
jumping into JK’s fast-pace rap. The verse then takes a decline bit with my
favourite part of the whole song – “inhale....exhale” – that part works
perfectly in pulling back JK’s excitement to MiRae’s soulful chorus. This
pattern is then repeated for the coming choruse and verse. MiRae’s rap is
followed up instantly with Bizzy’s rap and again, the tight beat is then loosen
with the “karma” part and just nicely falls into the chorus. The song ends on
the same feel/note as the beginning, completing the whole cycle and nothing was
left hanging. Overall, the rise and fall were perfect with the timing and beat
of each line/verse. For someone who never really finds out the meaning, I truly
rely on the sound in judging and liking a song.
On to the lyrics, this was a tough bit as I had to separate
the MV and lyrics to actually get the meaning (and I’m not sure if I really got
it). In summary, the lyrics tell us a ‘sweet dream’ of falling in love and
wanting to follow your lover’s path. The verses talk about things he/she wants
to do and having the freedom to do so. Travelling across land & sea, adventuring
towards each other and looking out for each other whilst leaving any past
behind. I don’t really wanna go too deep into the lyrics because its natural
for every listener to have their own interpretation of what’s being told. But
there is one section where I still don’t get it a 100%. The “karma” bit. But in
the song, that part is very addictive & catchy. The chorus talks about the
yearning of wanting the lover, getting together (“make 1 to 2”) and matches
very well with the melody used.
Finally, the MV. OK, I know many of you who have watched the
MV will just go ‘whaaat...’ at the video as the things just seem so random yet
awesome. From JK’s body spasm to the automated tiger, what the hell are they
trying to show here. As mentioned before, I had to separate the MV and lyrics
because the link is just (probably) too abstract for me to see on the surface.
We start off with JK being strapped to hundreds of wires & tubes,
connecting him to medical machines and his limbs being manacled to the bed
frame.
MiRae comes into the picture and – at the pull of a giant switch – turns
JK and his bed into a Jeep. I love that jeep <3 haha~ the coming scene of
MFBTY enjoy a bumpy ride fits in with JK’s rap of travelling about together. Be
it on land or on (in this case, IN) the sea. Suddenly, we see the same 3 people
in the Jeep, riding on the BED instead. Same outfit, JK holding the wheel and
MiRae in the back. This just stopped us viewers from thinking that they were
actually moving about but rather, just living it in a dream (hence the bed and
not moving anywhere).
Here we have the trio entering the room where JK is ‘sleeping’
in and attempts to electrify himself to life. Again, this matches JK’s lyric of
“tingle tingle tingle (electrify ya!)”. Unconscious-JK then starts to breath and
goes into a spasm series but fails to awaken. I tell you, JK is sure superb in
spasm. That is no easy feat.
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| Inhale..... |
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| Exhale.... |
A second attempt is then done, this time voodoo style.
Using some sort of bait, they call upon a tiger automaton which is quite relevant
since he is JK TIGER. The tiger then leaps onto JK and thrashes him about. A
little violent there but subtle enough. You may not notice this but the tiger actually
removes a mechanic part from JK’s body. Check out the pic below.
JK then goes
thru (again) a series of spasm but this time, with spikes & fireworks &
metal rods & gears popping in & out of his body before WHOOOSH, flies
up towards the sky (superman style?). Up to space where he meets a spaceman who’s
wearing a space suit written “Felix”. I googled and came to a project known as
Red Bull Stratos where an Australian skydiver named Felix freefalled from
space. JK then crashes back down with a force.
In the end, it was all just a
dream. JK wasn’t hooked up to any machines or chained to the bed. But then
again, could it be that the whole procedure attempted on him by the ‘medic trio’
was to bring him back to life, free from those machines & chains? The tiger
automaton symbolising his true TIGER spirit ripping away the mechanical core
within him.
To those who are new to JK Tiger, he actually had quite a rough
life previously, having contracted a non-curable disease called Transverse
Myelitis causing a 2-year hiatus. He is still suffering from it but takes pills
on a regularly basis to keep the symptoms low. With the MV, it could symbolise
his revival from the effort of Yoon Mi Rae and himself with the help of Bizzy
(in the MV that is).
Phew~ that was a long one. Sorry guys for the long rant but
a short review would not do justice for this royal piece. Hope you enjoyed
analysing through the song & MV, probably even coming up with your very own
story instead. Till next time, cheers~~~
PS: this is posted on a special day of mine in celebration
to it being a sweet dream as well as a congratz wish to my comrade RIN, whom
had just finished battling through finals.
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| Jordan is the name of their son~ |
Realy like your review! I was really trying to understand the mv and lyrics.
ReplyDeleteThank you very much for reading!! ^^
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